Special Committee on Personal Insurance for Members

Gary W. Lonergan, chair

The primary purpose of the Special Committee on Personal Insurance for Members is to provide oversight of the Virginia State Bar-endorsed health, term life, and disability income insurance plans. The VSB has endorsed such plans for more than fifty years. With the help of the broker-administrator, the Virginia State Bar Members’ Insurance Center, the committee monitors the plans and the details of coverage offered.

The work of the committee and the administrator relieve attorneys of the time and expense of finding insurance products on their own. The objective is for the committee to do the homework while VSB members practice law. A prime example of this homework was the market comparison conducted for the VSB life and disability plans this year. The purpose of the comparison was to evaluate insurance companies and their life and disability products to assure that VSB members have the best company, product, and rates available. This market comparison is nearly complete and will likely result in a change of life insurance companies and reduced premiums.

There are approximately 640 people are covered by the VSB group term life plan and about 250 under the group disability income plan. The committee is pleased to report that the rates for both these plans did not increase this past year. In fact, VSB members have not seen an increase in either plan during the last nineteen years.

The most popular component of the VSB insurance program is health insurance with Anthem. The enrollment of VSB members, attorneys’ staff members, and family members now exceeds 6,100. Thanks to the endorsement by the VSB, people receive “value-added,” or extra, benefits at no additional cost from Anthem. Another important feature of this VSB health insurance program is the ability to offer sole proprietor group coverage. An exception has been made for the VSB and several other professional associations. Ordinarily a minimum of two employees is required for group health insurance. As health insurance premiums continue to increase each year, our administrator devotes considerable effort in assisting law firms and sole proprietors to select the best health insurance.

Information about these VSB-endorsed insurance plans can be found at www.vsbmic.com.

I would like to express my appreciation to Vice Chair R. Paul Childress Jr., Raymond B. Benzinger, Franklin R. Blatt, Pamela Conner Gavin, M. Janet Palmer, Carol Joy Schrier-Polak, Susan Katherine Stoneman, and Kathleen Maureen Uston for their participation and commitment to the work of the committee. I would also like to thank VSB Deputy Executive Director Mary Yancey Spencer, for her help on behalf of the committee.